Finance and Public Service Minister, Dr Nigel Clarke, on Tuesday tabled the fourth supplementary estimates of expenditure for the 2023/24 fiscal year that ends on March 31, during the sitting of the House of Representatives.

The fourth supplementary estimates propose total expenditure of approximately $1.092 trillion, a reduction of $2.5 billion on the approved budget that is reflected in the third supplementary estimates that were approved on September 26 last year.

Clarke told the House that under-performance in the areas of production and consumption and international trade and a slight fall-off in revenues were responsible for the negligible reduction.

By contrast, the third supplementary estimates added $58.2 billion as a result of a $43.1-billion increase in revenues and grants. Increased tax revenue during the period amounted to $35.8 billion, non-tax revenues $6.1 billion, and grants amounted to $1 billion.

The finance minister also tabled the Jamaica Public Bodies 3rd Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure for the year ending March 2024.

Both documents have been referred to the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of the House for consideration and report.

Clarke explained that as the end of the fiscal year approaches, the Government has taken stock of the performance trends of both revenue and expenditure, thus the adjustments to the existing budget for both the central government and public bodies.

“The 4th supplementary estimates provide for the reallocation of resources from currently identified activities to other activities,” he said. He stated that where current allocations cannot be spent over the remaining seven weeks of the fiscal year, those allocations have been redirected.

A breakdown of the allocations shows that the fourth supplementary estimates is comprised of:

-Recurrent expenditure of $302.2 billion, up $2.1 billion from $300.2 billion.

-Compensation of employees remains flat at $404.2 billion as compared with $404.5 billion.

-Interest payments total $172. 7 billion, up $2.6 billion.

-Capital expenditure of $59.3 billion is down $7.4 billion from $66.6 billion.

-Amortisation is $138.6 billion, up 0.3 billion from $138.3 billion

-Non-debt expenditure totals $14.7 billion which is unchanged from the prior level.

Opposition spokesman on finance, Julian Robinson lamented that more than $7 billion set aside for capital projects will remain unspent during the year but Clarke explained that the reduction is due to the slow pace of project implementation on some projects, “particularly those that involve lots of coordination among many activities and lots of moving parts”. This, he said has resulted in the “inability to utilise the full allocation during the year”.

He told the House that contributing to the increase on the recurrent programme are transfers to a number of public bodies for a total of $2.3 billion.

“In addition to that amount, the NSWMA is being provided with $1.6 billion which covers an advance of $400 million previously provided,” said Clarke. The amount is to settle arrears and support operations until the end of the fiscal year.

Meanwhile, a $3 billion increase in debt service is mainly due to higher interest rates on external variable rate debt.

Said Clarke: “Under the fourth supplementary estimates, the targeted fiscal balance of 0.3 per cent of GDP remains the objective as the government continues its effort to meet the medium term debt-to-GDP target of 60 per cent by fiscal year 2027/28”.

Regarding the public bodies third supplementary estimates, Clarke said it indicates the transfer of$ 3.2 billion in financial distributions to the consolidated fund and a transfer of $2.3 billion from the central government to public bodies.

Entities to receive funds from the central government are the National Water Commission, the Jamaica Urban Transit Company, the Transport Authority, the Jamaica Racing Commission, the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Agency, the National Export/Import Bank of Jamaica, the Students’ Loan Bureau and the Public Accountancy Board.